


Inducted

by LadySilver



Series: Strength to Go On [8]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Community: fan_flashworks, Gen, H/C bingo, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-03
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2017-11-13 12:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/503337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySilver/pseuds/LadySilver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For her 10th birthday, Kate gets a present that is ... <i>electric.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Inducted

Kate Argent had tough shoes to fill. As the youngest child, the only girl, the “surprise,” she peered up at her brothers with unadorned hero worship and dreamed of the time when she’d finally be big enough, old enough, _man_ enough to join their camping trips, their sports teams, and their secret conversations.

She had been taught to track as soon as she could walk and taught to shoot a gun as soon as she could wrap her tiny hands around the stock—just like her brothers—yet, there was always something _different_ about how her father spoke to her and what he expected from her.

At night, he would tuck the covers around her shoulders, lean down to kiss her forehead, and then gaze at her with a strange intensity that brought goosebumps to her arms. Sometimes, instead of a bedtime story, he would tell her how when he had held her for the first time, he had looked into the steel, undetermined blue of his daughter’s eyes and known that she was going to restore pride to the Argent name. She had a destiny, he said.

She liked the word—desssss.tinnnn.yyyyy—the way it rolled off his tongue, the syllables stretched nearly to the point of breaking. She didn’t know what it meant, but it felt important. Too important to share.

Her brothers stared in bafflement the one time she brought it up, then promptly broke into a round of teasing: “Dainty Katie,” one of them shouted, as if she had been complaining about the work being too rough. The others picked up the thread, and soon “Dainty Katie” was all they called her. No matter that she had held her own before, as soon as the nickname was assigned, the boys began treating her as if she were too fragile and timid to do what they did. At first she resented the attitude, then she began to understand it for the challenge it was. Holding her own wasn’t enough; she had to make herself _better_.

For her 10th birthday, she received her reward. Her father took her down into the cellar under the barn, a dank, rock lined room that reeked of mildew and rotting things. The kids had been forbidden to go down there on punishment of death, and not even a triple dog dare was enough to risk testing the threat. In the beam of the flashlight in her father’s hand, she saw a hunk of shadow against the far wall. It groaned and lifted its heavy head to reveal a mouthful of sharp, inhuman, teeth. Kate cocked her head and studied the monster, comparing it to the ones that her imagination had supplied from the other bedtime stories. It fell so far short that she nearly sighed in disappointment.

Her father flicked on the lights and flooded the room in brightness that ate all the remaining shadows. On a wooden table in the middle of the room sat an array of equipment with a large red bow planted on the top. Dials and meters hummed and jittered with electricity and promise. “This is for you, Kate,” he intoned, slinging a proud arm over her shoulder. “You’re the only one who’s strong enough.” He showed her how the wires led from the machines to the beast, explained how the voltage controlled what the beast could and couldn’t do. Electrodes peppered the beast’s body, each wire with a unique purpose that she couldn’t wait to discover. A grin curved her mouth at the power that she was being entrusted with, at finally getting to learn what _destiny_ meant.

He indicated a button and stepped back. “Go ahead, dear.”

Kate reached out with all the confidence that “Dainty Katie” could never have and pressed the button. She imagined that she could see the current slipping down the wires and into the waiting body. The beast jumped and cried out, its body surging with electricity. Its agonized yell echoed off the rock, her delighted laughter filling in the spaces.

As her father looked on, his steady voice explaining what she could do now and what she would need to wait for other birthdays to learn, Kate thought about her brothers. They were back at home, no doubt asleep. How jealous they would be of her present. Only, they’d never know. They could believe what they wanted to about her now; she would never tell them otherwise, because _they_ were only boys, and she had been right all along.

She stretched up on her toes to grasp a switch toward the back. A glance at her father’s face showed only approval, his blue eyes glistening. The switch flicked with barely a touch. A wire crackled with energy and the beast’s body bucked, its muscles spasming at her command. A human mask slipped over the monster’s face, and Kate laughed again.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the fan_flashworks prompt: wire, and the h/c bingo prompt: torture.


End file.
